It's a beautiful — if a tad chilly — day at Nationals Park, and with the home team playing .500 ball and a quality opponent in town, you'd think tonight's game would register more than a blip on the local radar screen.

But something tells me the Nats-Rockies series opener won't.

There's always one or two dates on the baseball schedule that figure to draw especially low interest, and tonight's game fits that bill on several fronts.

– It's a Monday night in April, typically some of the least-attended games of the season.

– It's a low-profile opponent. Though the Rockies are a good club, they don't have many followers east of … well, the Rockies.

– The Capitals are playing Game 3 of their first-round Stanley Cup playoff series at the same time tonight.

Stan Kasten doesn't like giving out season ticket numbers, so there's no way to know for sure what the Nats' base is this year. But pay attention to tonight's announced attendance, because it's probably going to be close to the season ticket number.

For reference, the smallest crowd in Nationals Park history was 12,473, set on April 20, 2009, a Monday night against the Braves that started more than two hours late because of rain. (That was also Jordan Zimmermann's big-league debut.)

Check back for updates throughout the game, and check the homepage for other news…

Mark did ask sometime ago. It was "safety" issues, because the grass was set in different ways. supposedly the ball could bounce wierd or a cleat can catch wierd. Either way, it could cause an injury. (I don't particularly buy it, but that's the answer.)

Okay, thanks, did not realize the subject had been discussed. It seems to me that other clubs do something similar (Red Sox do the stockings in the infield) – and the W has been on the back of the pitching mound at least since last year.Other subject – per Mark's preview of the series, looks like Zimmerman has trouble hitting all these pitchers.

Mark:I posted this at the Post blog for Adam as well …Why does Guzman hit in the 2 or 3 spot when he plays, while Desmond hits 8th? Presumably Desmond won the starting job in large part because of his offensive potential- after all, he's no Ozzie Smith. He's also faster and more patient than Guz. Given this, and the team's presumed conclusion that Desmond was the better hitter generally, why is Guz worthy of the 2/3 spot but Desmond gets buried behind Willie Harris while relative lightweight Adam Kennedy hits in the 2?I'd be very curious to hear Riggleman's answer to this.

Mark:I posted this at the Post blog for Adam as well …Why does Guzman hit in the 2 or 3 spot when he plays, while Desmond hits 8th? Presumably Desmond won the starting job in large part because of his offensive potential- after all, he's no Ozzie Smith. He's also faster and more patient than Guz. Given this, and the team's presumed conclusion that Desmond was the better hitter generally, why is Guz worthy of the 2/3 spot but Desmond gets buried behind Willie Harris while relative lightweight Adam Kennedy hits in the 2?I'd be very curious to hear Riggleman's answer to this.

@Aeoliano: "The head groundskeeper said that it could create a hazard in the outfield that might lead to potential injuries. He has placed it on the back of the pitching mound."The curly W's been on the back of the pitcher's mound since at least 2006 at RFK. Certainly it was there for every single game ever played at Nationals Park.I don't miss it in center field all that much; but I have to say, blaming the grass curly-W for potential misplays in the outfield has a definite Actaesque quality about it.

@Dave, @natsfan1a1,The groundskeeper could have made the same judgement about the curly w on the mound. Let's face it our pitchers are probably more prone to injury than any other position. Yet he kept it. Just saying ….

@Aeoliano: "The head groundskeeper said that it could create a hazard in the outfield that might lead to potential injuries. He has placed it on the back of the pitching mound."The curly-W has been on the back of the pitcher's mound since at least 2006 in RFK.I don't miss it that much in centerfield. However, I must say that blaming the grass curly-W for potential misplays has a definite Actaesque ring to it.

Mark – do you think Stammen might be on a short leash at this point? I noticed that JD Martin is pitching tonight for Syracuse and has had dramatically better results in his first two starts. If things continue tonight, might they switch places by next time around the rotation?

BowdenBall: The answer to the Guzman batting No. 2 question is: That's where he's most comfortable and has had the most success. When he batted in other spots last year, he struggled. So Riggleman wants to make him as comfortable as possible when he does play.David: I don't necessarily think Stammen's leash is so short that he's pitching for his job tonight, but I do think he needs to put together a much better outing. After Marquis' blowup yesterday, the Nats can't afford anything less than five innings from Craig tonight.

Mark, If I recall correctly one of Randy St. Claire's strengths was his use of video to help pitchers identify mechanical flaws. McCatty was heralded as more of a motivational and accountability guy. McCatty realized some quick success, but lets face it St. Claire was not to blame for poor performance, bad pitchers were. So in light of Marquis' struggles, isn't fair to ask if McCatty uses video enough? I don't know the answer, but I'd like to.

The point that we win when we get quality pitching has already been made, but the MASN broadcasters kinda hammered it home with these early season statistics: The Nats have 2 of the top 5 players in the NL for OBP (#1 Willingham and #5 Rodriguez), they lead the league in stolen bases, and they've only had one ATTEMPTED stolen base against them… When you can get on base and run, while limiting the movement of other teams, you should stand a pretty good chance to pick up a curly W… as long as your starting pitchers don't give up 6 runs.

The guys seem to be gaining confidence each game (win or lose). Showing a little swagger, I like that. Pudge's offense was down last year, but he did play winter ball and the classic last year, might have had something to do with it.

Attendance will always be low for games like this for the reasons Mark stated above. The real test is what the attendance is against the weekend non-division games like the one we just had against the Brewers. All the cheap seats were sold out for those. I could barely snag the $10 RF terrace, let alone grandstand seats, where, as my moniker suggests, I enjoy to sit (or at least buy tickets for…)There's been a longstanding tradition with this team to fill up the cheap seats because it's just not worth more than 10 bucks to see them play. When THAT begins to change, we'll know we've turned a corner. Until then, I'll take my $5 field level seats and enjoy them greatly!As for the game, am I the only one who feels we're getting incredibly lucky on a lot of these plays? We seem to be making stupid mistakes, but the other teams seem to be making more, and we seem to miraculously get out of the bad situations we're in. Any sabres out there have some BABIP numbers for our winning games?